Mined in Sweden Forges the Ring of LiFe From Period Blood and Fossil-Free Iron
Ring of LiFe is a 2025 ambient, experiential, and film campaign created for Mined in Sweden by Stockholm agency Åkestam Holst NoA, in which a ring is forged by combining iron extracted from menstrual blood with fossil-free iron from Swedish mines, making a physical object that unites human biology with industrial extraction, according to Luerzersarchive.
The campaign launched in Sweden in November 2025, with applications to receive an individually made ring open until 14 December 2025, per the campaign's own announcement at Ringoflife, according to Bookawardsdb.se. The central provocation is elemental in the most literal sense: iron circulates inside every human body, and the iron extracted from Swedish bedrock is the same element. By making that connection tangible — not as metaphor but as metallurgy — the campaign repositions mining away from an extractive industrial category and toward a story of shared substance between the earth and the people who live on it.
In Sweden, where the mining sector occupies a significant and sometimes contested place in public life, the campaign's timing and geographic specificity are deliberate. Industrial partners Boliden, LKAB, Heidelberg Materials, Epiroc, Sandvik, and Svemin all contributed to the project, according to Clapboard's campaign record. The fossil-free iron sponge used in the ring was produced by LKAB, and iron from a menstruation sample was processed by Professor Jonas Bergquist at Uppsala University, with steel refinement carried out by Swerim — a production chain that gives the campaign's narrative claim scientific and industrial credibility rather than leaving it as advertising concept, according to WARC. Clapboard scores Ring of LiFe at 79 out of 100, recognising the strength of its conceptual foundation and its cross-sector collaborative architecture.
Mined in Sweden targets a perception gap specific to Sweden's relationship with its own extractive sector, according to Marcommnews. Emma Härdmark, Communications Director at Svemin, articulated the strategic rationale directly when the campaign was publicly unveiled on 3 December 2025, as reported by Marcomm News: "People often have strong opinions about mining, but the understanding of what metals actually do for us is remarkably limited. Especially among women. Ring of LiFe is intended to deepen that conversation. When people see that the iron in their own bodies is the very same element we extract from the earth, the relationship between humans and mining becomes easier to grasp."
The insight driving the campaign is that industrial communication has historically addressed itself to an audience that already accepts mining's necessity. Ring of LiFe redirects that communication toward a broader public — and specifically toward women — by finding a biological entry point that makes abstract industrial processes personally relevant. Iron deficiency is a documented health concern disproportionately affecting women, and menstruation is the mechanism through which iron is regularly lost from the body. The campaign copy, as documented by Clapboard, frames this directly: man has mined iron for over 2,000 years, but women have done it since the dawn of time — from within.
In the sustainable materials space, competitors such as SSAB, which developed the HYBRIT fossil-free steel process in Sweden, and global sustainable jewelry producers operate with sophisticated brand narratives of their own, according to reporting by ssab.com. The global fossil-free steel market stood at approximately four billion US dollars in 2025 and is projected to grow substantially through 2034, according to Growth Market Reports — context that places LKAB's involvement in Ring of LiFe within a commercially significant materials transition, not merely a communications exercise. Ring of LiFe activates that transition at the level of individual human experience rather than industrial tonnage.
Åkestam Holst NoA built the Ring of LiFe campaign across ambient, experiential, and film media — a combination that reflects the layered nature of the concept itself. The campaign contains one primary media asset as documented in Clapboard's archive record, and its creative architecture is designed to function as both a film narrative and a live, participatory experience through which members of the Swedish public could apply to have their own ring made.
The creative team at Åkestam Holst NoA was led by Joakim Khoury as creative director, with Eva Wallmark serving as art director, Stephanie Moradi as copywriter, and Joanna Nilsson as producer, as documented by Luerzer's Archive. The campaign's copy operates in the register of a creation myth — declarative, slow-moving, concerned with origins — while the experiential component grounds that myth in verifiable science and industrial process. Professor Jonas Bergquist at Uppsala University conducted the iron extraction from a menstruation sample, and Swerim handled the steel refinement that produced the ring material, according to Clapboard's record.
The ambient dimension of the campaign is inseparable from the ring itself: a physical object, produced through a documented scientific and industrial process, that circulates in the world as evidence of the campaign's central claim. This approach places Ring of LiFe within a broader tradition of Swedish advertising that prefers proof over assertion — a creative discipline that Åkestam Holst NoA has practised across its body of work. The film component delivers the narrative framework, establishing the conceptual terms before the experiential layer invites direct participation. Together, the three media formats create a campaign in which the message, the medium, and the object are each expressions of the same idea: that iron from the earth and iron from the body are the same thing.
No independently verified performance data for the Ring of LiFe campaign — such as reach figures, earned media volume, or application numbers — is publicly available at the time of writing. What Clapboard's archive records are 1,984 views, 5 likes, and 0 comments on the campaign listing itself, which reflects early-stage archival visibility rather than the full scope of the campaign's public impact in Sweden.
What the campaign's structure signals about effectiveness is nonetheless substantial. Ring of LiFe deploys six major Swedish industrial organisations — Boliden, LKAB, Heidelberg Materials, Epiroc, Sandvik, and Svemin — as co-creators rather than sponsors, which distributes both the production investment and the reputational endorsement of the concept across the sector. That architecture is a structural indicator of stakeholder confidence that is rarely achieved in industrial advertising. The involvement of Uppsala University's Professor Jonas Bergquist lends the campaign scientific verifiability, transforming what could have been a speculative creative proposition into a documented process with institutional backing.
The campaign's application mechanic — inviting the Swedish public to apply for a personally made ring before 14 December 2025 — introduces a direct response dimension to what is otherwise a brand and perception campaign, creating a measurable interaction layer even within an ambient and experiential format. Clapboard scores Ring of LiFe at 79 out of 100, reflecting the campaign's conceptual originality, its cross-sector collaborative depth, and the disciplined integration of scientific process with narrative genre — while acknowledging that verified outcome data remains outstanding.
Ring of LiFe is a 2025 Swedish campaign created by Åkestam Holst NoA for Mined in Sweden. It forges a ring from iron extracted from menstrual blood combined with fossil-free iron from Swedish mines. The campaign spans ambient, experiential, and film media, using a scientifically documented process to connect human biology with industrial extraction.
Åkestam Holst NoA created Ring of LiFe for Mined in Sweden in 2025. The creative team comprised Joakim Khoury as creative director, Eva Wallmark as art director, Stephanie Moradi as copywriter, and Joanna Nilsson as producer, as documented by Luerzer's Archive. Industrial partners included LKAB, Boliden, Sandvik, and Svemin.
Professor Jonas Bergquist at Uppsala University processed the iron extraction from a menstruation sample. That iron was then combined with fossil-free iron sponge produced by LKAB, with steel refinement carried out by Swerim, according to Clapboard's campaign record. The process gives the campaign's central claim verifiable scientific and industrial credibility.
Six major Swedish industrial organisations partnered on Ring of LiFe: Boliden, LKAB, Heidelberg Materials, Epiroc, Sandvik, and Svemin, per Clapboard's record. Their involvement positions the campaign as a sector-wide communication effort rather than a single-brand initiative, distributing both production investment and institutional endorsement across Swedish mining and materials industries.
Mined in Sweden aimed to deepen public understanding of mining's relevance, particularly among women. As Emma Härdmark of Svemin stated to Marcomm News, understanding of what metals do for people is remarkably limited, especially among women. The campaign used the shared elemental identity of bodily and mined iron to make that industrial story personally and biologically immediate.
Ring of LiFe received a Clapboard Score of 79 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's strong conceptual originality, its scientifically verified production process, and its rare cross-sector collaborative architecture involving six industrial partners and Uppsala University. The score also acknowledges that independently verified audience performance data for the campaign remains publicly unavailable at this time.
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